TikTok's Pinto Bean Cake Is So Wrong It's Actually Right
Many say that "everything was better in the old days," and Tiktoker B. Dylan Hollis couldn't agree more. This 27-year-old content creator loves all things vintage, from jazz music to cars, and started posting about it in his TikTok profile when the pandemic hit (via The Washington Post). Although not a trained baker, he later got into vintage recipes and started exploring and collecting books with 20th-century creations that today we can describe as unusual. After more than nine million followers on TikTok, he became a "midcentury connoisseur," by filming himself trying an old recipe and then tasting it no matter how weird it looked.
He has prepared things like peanut butter cake, Velveeta fudge, coca-cola salads, and pork cake, all recipes from vintage cookbooks. In a recent video, Hollis prepares a pinto bean cake, a recipe from 1955 that includes drained pinto beans, ground peanuts, honey, eggs, butter, and baking powder. This caused some shock initially, as some couldn't think something salty and starchy like beans could result in a sweet cake. But what was more surprising was Hollis describing it as "phenomenal."
Pinto bean cake is a soft and rich gluten-free cake
"How does it taste like?" a user asked, and Hollis replied saying it was soft, dense, rich, and a "bit like a nutty, brown sugar pound cake." In an archival pinto cake recipe posted in The Denver Post, the writer said the beans "give a moist, rather heavy but appetizing texture," especially if it is mashed.
The viewers couldn't believe the recipe tasted good. "It's...it's good?! I was gagging with each ingredient," read a comment from a user who definitely didn't like the recipe. "Babe I love you but you have no right to make me want to try this," said another fan. Others agreed and said, " I do not believe it tastes good!" But in the end, most followers loved how the video turned out. "These are my favorite ones, when you think it's going to be an absolute car crash and then.... the smile," someone commented.
Other users highlighted that the cake is a great gluten-free option, a good source of protein, and "one way to get kids to eat their veggies." Someone else remembered black bean brownies, a delicious and high-on-fiber treat. It felt like the community was curious about doing and trying the pinto bean cake, just to see if they agree or not with Hollis' approval. "The bean rebellion has begun!" someone commented — what do you think?